The Perfect SalesForce by Derek Gatehouse is a wonderful resource for any business looking to hire a sales representative for their operation. The book teaches business owners how to create a pleasant environment for sales workers that will inspire them to strive to their full potential every single day. Learn how to reduce employee change over and the related costs of hiring and training new staff by offering incentives and consequences. Discover how you might be failing your staff by improperly placing them in inappropriate venues.

Particularly surprising is that businesses unknowingly waste a huge amount of resources on sales-related training courses. Gatehouse uses a term that some dog trainers will be familiar with - “shaping”. Interestingly, many of the same behavior modifications for dogs using positive shaping techniques are similar to the development of sales people.

Typically, once I’ve completed a book review project the book is then donated to either the Grand Forks & West Boundary Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy or the Women’s Resource Center – however, I really felt that a book like this belongs in the sector that supports small businesses, so I plan to take this book to the local CFDC (Community Futures Development Center) for their library and small business programs.

With a large font and an easy-to-read format, The Perfect Salesforce is a clear and enjoyable guide for business owners to use. The analogies are sometimes entertaining but always effective in getting the point across. While you will not find visual aids here such as images or graphs, occasional tables simplify information for the reader. Another positive aspect is the detailed index at book's end. Extra tools are provided online as a supplement to the book, including forms and databases for readers to access.

Derek Gatehouse has worked in the sales industry for over 30 years as a sales rep, manager, vice president and trainer at a variety of companies in varying industries. Today, he is the CEO of a consulting and training firm in New York.

The Perfect Salesforce was printed in the U.S., which may ease the conscience of some readers due to fewer fossil fuels spent on North American readers.